


'Twas the Night Before Christmas

by MarieKavanagh



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (Don't ask Bellatrix Black), Christmas Eve, Gen, Is Father Christmas real?, Is he not?, STAY TUNED TO FIND OUT - Freeform, late-night brotherly adventures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:53:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28460463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MarieKavanagh/pseuds/MarieKavanagh
Summary: "'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, two creatures were stirring, creeping about the house..."After a conversation with their eldest cousin leaves both boys shaken with worry, Sirius leads an expedition down through the house to determine whether all he believes about the magic of Christmas is true after all...
Relationships: Orion Black & Regulus Black, Orion Black & Sirius Black, Regulus Black & Sirius Black
Comments: 5
Kudos: 51





	'Twas the Night Before Christmas

In the early hours of Christmas morning, Grimmauld Place was eerily silent, a stark comparison from the hive of bustling activity it had been just a few hours earlier when it had played host to the finest members of wizarding society for the Black family’s annual Christmas Eve party The house had been decked to the nines, the tables heaving with food and drink, the atmosphere filled with the warmth of festive cheer. 

Now, at almost three in the morning, it was as though no such party had ever taken place. The guests had all gone, each of them transported via the Floo fireplace back to their own homes to see out the rest of the night (some having walked into the hearth in a far straighter a line than others). The tables had been cleared of the remnants of their feast, the countless crystal champagne flutes each cleaned and polished to perfection, replaced neatly in their cases for the next upcoming party on the family’s festive calendar. 

And so, with the house having been restored to pristine condition once again, its exhausted, devoted house elf had tucked himself away in his cramped little alcove behind the boiler to scrounge a few hours’ hard-earned rest before the winter sun dawned on Christmas Day, bringing with it a fresh flurry tasks for him to chip away at to ensure the house was prepared once again to play host to the next round of seasonal festivities.

Only one small noise interrupted the empty silence which hung over the house. High up on the top floor, the patter of small, slippered feet belonging to the two youngest members of the household against the wooden floors could be heard as they tiptoed their way down the staircase. 

“Be _quiet,_ Reg!” Seven-year-old Sirius Black hissed in a whispered voice as his younger brother stepped on a creaky step.

“Sorry, Sirius” Regulus mumbled, sleepily. 

“Just try and stay quiet until we reached downstairs” Sirius grabbed his little brother’s hand to guide him around any more of the numerous creaky steps he had memorised throughout his past late-night adventures around the house. He’d forced himself to stay awake for far too long to allow his sleepy, clumsy brother to ruin his plans now. 

“Do we _have_ to do this, Sirius?” Regulus whispered as they reached the bottom of the staircase at the ground floor of the house at last. “It’s awfully late. I want to go back to sleep”

The younger boy let out a deep yawn and rubbed at his eye.

“Well, it’s too late to change your mind now” Sirius retorted, as if he hadn’t been the one to shake the five-year-old boy out of his peaceful slumber just minutes ago specifically in order to drag him along on his mission. “ _I_ shan’t go to sleep until I’ve seen that my Christmas presents are definitely there. And you’re not going to go all the way back upstairs all by yourself, are you?” 

Regulus craned his neck to peer up at the staircase spiralling through the floors of the house above them. He shuddered at the darkness and shook his head, squeezing his hand tight into Sirius’s.

“I thought not,” Sirius gave his brother’s hand a reassuring squeeze back. “Now, come on, the it’s this way”

The two boys tiptoed together through the darkness until, at long last, they reached their destination - the front parlour. Sirius carefully twisted the handle of the door and held his breath as he eased it open. To his immense relief, the door did not creak. Kreacher had clearly taken care to heed their mother’s advice for him to ensure that no door in her house should let out as offensive a noise as a creak, lest he wish to find himself ordered to shut his own fingers into any such offending door.

The two boys slipped into the parlour and found themselves blinking in the bright light of the Christmas tree, fuelled by the ornaments enhanced with illuminating charms.

Sirius broke into a wide, triumphant grin. 

“I _knew_ it!” 

The whole affair had begun two days ago when, whilst on a visit to Grimmauld Place for afternoon tea with her mother and sisters, the boys’ eldest cousin, Bellatrix, had taken great amusement in shattering the boys’ Christmas hopes. 

“You don’t seriously still believe in all _that_ hogwash, do you?” she laughed to Regulus after the boy had timidly tried to make polite conversation by asking her what presents she hoped Father Christmas might bring her.

The rest of the party were downstairs settling into the parlour for tea, but Bellatrix had gone out of her way to journey upstairs to “go and say hello to my favourite cousins”, or so she’d told her aunt.

“Um, yes?” Regulus replied somewhat nervously, clearly afraid of having given the wrong answer. His big, grey eyes stared up at the elder girl worriedly. “Why? Don’t you?”

“Of course not!” Bellatrix cackled and shook her head at him. “Oh dear, this _is_ a shame. Five whole years old and still believing in all that rubbish, Regulus? What a pity” 

“How do _you_ know he’s not real?” Sirius demanded, riled by his cousin’s mocking tone. He marched forward and stood himself in front of his brother, shielding the smaller boy from Bellatrix. 

“Because it’s obvious?” Bellatrix arched an eyebrow and stared accusingly at Sirius. “Why? Don’t tell me _you_ still believe in Father Christmas as well, Sirius?” 

To his credit, Sirius continued to hold his head up high and proud in the face of such an accusation. 

But beneath the façade, his conviction faltered for a moment. A moment long enough for his elder cousin to pounce on it with predator-like precision. 

“Well-”

“Aha! I knew it!”

Sirius scowled defiantly as Bellatrix shook her head in mock disappointment. 

“Dear oh dear, I expected better of you, Sirius” she sighed, smirking like the cat that got the cream.

“Shut up!” Sirius shouted. He clenched his fists angrily. He could feel himself burning with humiliation at being made fun of. Behind him, Regulus clutched at his sleeve and tugged anxiously, willing his brother not to cause a fight which might get them both into trouble. 

But Sirius would not be deterred.

“Stop laughing at us!” he demanded over Bellatrix’s giggles.

“And why should I, hmm?” Bellatrix smirked mischievously. She was clearly enjoying herself. “It’s not my fault if my two little cousins are still babyish enough to believe in all that rubbish”

Before Sirius could retort, Bellatrix tossed her hair over her shoulder and turned to leave. She was expected downstairs in the parlour to join the tea party - an occasion the boys were judged still too young to join in on. 

“Enjoy your playtime, boys” she called from the doorway, mockingly. “I’d make the most of those toys of yours, if I were you. It’s not as though you’ll be getting any new ones on Christmas Day - since there is no such thing as Father Christmas” 

Pausing for just a second long enough to drink in the look of horror which fell across her little cousins’ faces, Bellatrix gave them one final farewell smirk and was gone. 

The moment the door slammed shut behind her, Sirius turned to his brother and put an arm around his shoulder. 

“Don’t listen to her, Reg” he said. “She’s just trying to trick us. Of course there really is a Father Christmas” 

Regulus looked up at his brother. His saucer-like eyes shone wetly and his bottom lip quivered. 

“But... how can you be sure, Sirius?” he asked, his voice catching halfway through as he fought not to let out a sob. 

“Because…” Sirius paused, thinking. How could he be sure? “Because it’s obvious! We get presents every Christmas morning, don’t we? And everyone knows they’re from Father Christmas!” 

“Suppose…” Regulus sniffled and wiped his nose on the sleeve of his robe - a bad habit he'd have been scolded for if their governess had caught him. “Suppose we don’t get any presents on Christmas Day?” 

Sirius gave his brother a shake. 

“Reg, I just told you, there is so a Father Christmas! Of course we’re going to get presents!” 

Wide-eyed with innocent trusting, Regulus appeared to relax for a short moment, before his nerves were suddenly put on high alert once again.

“But, Sirius... Even if he does exist, suppose he doesn’t bring us any presents?” Regulus sounded anxious. “What if we haven’t been good enough this year?”

Sirius felt a sudden lurch of anxiety in his stomach as he processed Regulus’s words. His brother was right. There may well truly be a Father Christmas, but it was entirely possible that he wasn’t particularly pleased with them. They hadn’t been very good that year. Or rather, _Sirius_ hadn’t been very good, and Regulus hadn’t been very good by association. Suppose Father Christmas did indeed decide to withhold their presents? 

The question had plagued Sirius endlessly ever since. He’d tossed and turned at night, wide awake with the horrifying image of an empty tree on Christmas morning playing over and over again in his mind. 

When Christmas Eve arrived at last, Sirius had picked at his dinner, his ever-worsening worries robbing him of his appetite. 

“Eat up, Sirius,” his governess had urged him. “You’ll want to be properly energised to enjoy all your presents tomorrow morning, won’t you?” 

Sirius dropped his fork down onto his plate, suddenly feeling very ill. 

That night, he tossed and turned again, unable to sleep. He could hear the buzz of the adults’ Christmas Eve party going on several floors below, but for once he was not consumed with envy of their late night celebrations. All he wanted was to know for sure whether or not he was going to have presents to open in the morning. He glanced out of his window in the hope of catching sight of a sleigh soaring past the moon, but the sky remained disappointingly empty. 

The hours ticked by, and still Sirius could not sleep. The noise of the party below began to die down as the guests began to leave, until at last the house had fallen silent. Sirius couldn’t see his clock in the dark, but he knew it must be awfully late if the party had finished.

Father Christmas would surely be stopping by soon. He was a clever wizard, he’d know to wait until the grown ups had finished their party and gone to bed, well out of his way.

Any minute now… 

Sirius awoke with a jolt. When had he fallen asleep? He sat up and looked around his room in alarm. It was still pitch black, the middle of the night. Would Father Christmas have been yet? 

He could take it no more. Sirius threw aside his bed covers and hopped out of bed. He tugged on his dressing gown to shield him from the chill of the winter night and hurriedly tiptoed out of his room, across the landing into his brother’s room. 

“Reg!” Sirius whispered as he shook what appeared to be the shoulder of the curled up bundle under the bed covers. “Regulus! Wake up!”

“Huh?” Regulus peered, bleary-eyed, at his brother. “Sirius? S’going on?” 

“Everyone’s gone to bed” said Sirius in his urgent, hushed tone. “It’s very late - Father Christmas must surely have been by now. Let’s go and check for presents!” 

Regulus gave a sleepy groan of protest and snuggled further into his pillow. 

Sirius gave him another shake. 

“Come _on,_ Reg!” he urged. “Don’t you want to check under the tree? And make sure Father Christmas is definitely real? You can prove to Bella tomorrow that she was wrong!” 

Declaring that he was right over their rather scary eldest cousin was the last thing Regulus was ever going to do - but nevertheless, the younger boy knew his elder brother would not let up and allow him to go back to sleep, and so he dutifully hauled himself out from within his warm bed and trailed after Sirius through the house on their late-night search for Christmas presents. 

Regulus blinked hard as the lights of the parlour Christmas tree - a much smaller affair than the enormous spruce from Granny Irma’s family estate in Germany - and raised a hand to cover his tired eyes from the glare of the charmed ornaments. 

Sirius practically buzzed with excitement at the sight of the brightly-wrapped boxes stacked neatly under the tree. 

“Look, Reg!” he shouted, pointing at the tree and jumping on the balls of his bare feet. “Presents! See? I told you there really was a Father Christmas!” 

As he took in the sight of the piles of gifts, Regulus felt his weariness begin to fade, slightly, replaced by excitement of his own. His face fell again, however, as he watched his elder brother dive head-first at the tree and grab the nearest present. 

“Sirius, no!” Regulus cried, hurrying over to the tree and crouching beside him. “You can’t open them!” 

“I can if they’re for me!” Sirius turned the present this way and that in search of a name tag. He frowned as he read the name on the tag, _"Regulus",_ and tossed it aside in favour of another. “And I’m only going to open one” 

“But you’ll get into awful trouble! You’re not allowed to open presents until Christmas morning, it’s the rules!” 

“Who _cares_ about stupid rules? And anyway, don't you know that in Germany they open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve?” Sirius was parroting what his grandmother had told him a few days previously. “And Granny Irma’s family is German, so that means we’re allowed to open them now!” 

Upon finding that the name tag on the second present he'd grabbed bore Regulus’s name and not his, Sirius threw it down impatiently. A slight niggle of nerves struck him. Suppose that none of these presents were for him after all? 

“Reg, come and help me look” Sirius ordered, reaching for another wrapped gift. “Get behind the tree and look at the ones at the back, you’re the smallest” 

Regulus let out a sleepy grumble, but could not bring himself to disobey his elder brother’s command. Perhaps if he could hunt down a present for Sirius, he would be allowed to go back to bed…

Whilst his younger brother belly-crawled under the low branches of the tree, burrowing towards the very back in search of a present for his brother, Sirius continued to rifle through the boxes at the front. 

At last, he found them. Stacked in a pile together on the far side of the tree, wrapped in bright green paper and each finished with a festive red bow. A whole pile of presents - all with Sirius’s name on them. 

“Yes! Finally!”

Overjoyed, Sirius grabbed the gift on the top of the pile and untied the red ribbon. It fell away instantly. But as he attempted to rip away the green wrapping, Sirius found that it wouldn’t budge. Puzzled, he tried harder, clawing at the shiny green paper with his nails, but they failed to leave so much as a dent in the colouring. The wrapping paper wouldn’t budge. 

“Come _on!_ ” Sirius tossed down the box in frustration before instantly picking it up and attempting to rip away the wrapping with renewed vigour. 

“Dammit!” He let out the most offensive word he could summon from within his juvenile vocabulary. "Why won’t you open?!” 

“Because the wrapping has been specifically charmed to hold fast against _prying hands_ ” 

Startled by the sudden, deep voice, Sirius looked up and froze. Standing above him was his father, his looming presence no less formidable in his pyjamas, dressing gown and slippers as if he’d been dressed in full, formal robes.

For once in his short life, Sirius was speechless. He sat, frozen in his spot cross-legged in front of the Christmas tree, his present hugged tight to his chest.

Orion stared silently at his son for several moments, allowing the suspense to build before addressing his son once more. 

“Don’t you think you ought to put that back?” 

Sirius swallowed, dryly. For a child usually so full of argument, he now found himself with not a single witty remark to offer. Silently, he obeyed his father’s order and carefully set the wrapped box back down in it’s spot under the tree.

Orion withdrew his wand from his dressing gown pocket and pointed it at the box. The discarded red ribbon picked itself up from the floor and tied itself around the gift in a neat bow once again. 

Pocketing his wand, Orion’s attention turned back to Sirius. 

“I think you ought to tell me precisely what you think you were doing, before I have every one of those presents tossed into the fireplace” 

Sirius felt the colour drain from his face in horror at the thought.

“I- I only wanted to check that they were here, Papa” Sirius offered, his eyes wide with pleading.

The elder wizard furrowed his brow at his son.

“And why, pray tell, did you suppose they _wouldn’t_ be here?” 

“Because…” Sirius looked down at the floor. “Because I thought perhaps Father Christmas wouldn’t bring me anything. I thought I might not have been good enough this year” 

Orion stared down at his son, taken aback. The boy was notorious for his stubborn refusal to accept when he’d done wrong, let alone to offer up a confession with hardly any prompting. For Sirius to say such a thing must surely mean that he had taken this idea that he’d been bad enough to receive no presents at all on Christmas morning quite seriously indeed.

“It is true, one cannot deny that you have not been entirely on your best behaviour this year”

Sirius drooped like a wilting plant. 

“However-” 

Like a puppy at the sound of the lid of a treat jar being unscrewed, the boy’s attention pricked up instantly. 

“If you replace each and every one of those presents precisely how you found them immediately, I could _perhaps_ be persuaded that you have been just about good enough to be allowed to open them in the morning”

Sirius immediately scrambled up onto his hands and knees with an eager nod of his head and grabbed the nearest of his gifts in his hands. 

“And I should warn you-” 

Sirius paused mid-way through placing the box back in its place under the tree and looked up at Orion anxiously.

“-the wrapping on those gifts will not give way until I give my express permission for you to open them” Orion narrowed his eyes at his son. “So I would highly recommend that you do not attempt to do so a moment before that permission is given. If you do, I will know”

The slightest glimmer of danger flickered in his father’s gaze, a look which Sirius couldn’t help but physically shrink under. 

The boy nodded eagerly. 

“Yes, Papa” he said, with all the sincerity that his Orion had spent many a Christmas wish hoping for from his son. 

He watched with a degree of satisfaction as Sirius replaced each and every wrapped gift in its place until the tree was looking suitably bountiful once more. 

“Now, back to bed with you” said Orion once Sirius had finished. “And I expect you to stay there until your governess deems it an appropriate time for you to be awake in the morning. If I hear news of anything otherwise, I may have to rethink my decision not to inform your mother of this little… incident” 

Sirius’s eyes widened with alarm at the mention of his mother - precisely the reaction Orion had expected. 

If there was any threat capable of garnering a rare display of submission out of his boy, it was Walburga Black. 

“I will, I’ll go straight back to bed” said Sirius. No sooner had he finished speaking than he had hurried out of the room, without so much as a ‘goodnight’ to his father in his haste, and tiptoed back towards the staircase. Orion had to admit, this rare display of meekness from his eldest son was rather a treat. A Christmas gift far more satisfying than anything one could wrap in shining paper and adorn with a ribbon. 

Just as Orion turned to depart and begin his journey back to his own bed, a faint rustling noise came from across the room. From under the Christmas tree. 

“Rats” he seethed under his breath, irritation rising within him. He made a mental note to ensure that the house elf had the room thoroughly checked for a nest of vermin first thing in the morning and pulled out his wand from his dressing gown pocket to deal with the creature at hand. 

As he pointed his wand at the source of the rustling noise, another sound reached his ears. 

A faint sound. High-pitched, almost a whimper. 

“Sirius?” The small voice that spoke sounded lost and confused.

Orion breathed a heavy sigh and stared up a the gleaming star adorning the top of the tree. 

“Give me strength…” 

He walked over to the Christmas tree and separated the branches at the back. The thick foliage parted to reveal Regulus, curled up in a ball at the very back of the tree, obscured almost entirely by the stack of presents his elder brother had barricaded him behind. 

In one swift wand move, Orion had swept both the tree and the stack of presents clean out of the way. Exposed from his hiding place, Regulus half-lifted his head and blinked blearily in the harsh light of the Christmas tree. The boy seemed to have fallen asleep curled up at the very back of the tree.

“Where am I?” he asked. His voice was feather light, in a dream-like state. 

“Not where you ought to be” 

Orion bent down to scoop up his younger son. 

Regulus felt as limp as a ragdoll in his father’s arms as he slipped back into the land of dreams. He stirred slightly as Orion tightened his hold around his small body, but simply gave a deep, contented sigh and fell right back to sleep with his head nuzzled into the crook of his father's neck. 

Orion was grateful that his son was so sleepy - with any luck he would awaken in a few hours’ time brimming with excitement, as children all across the world would, far too overcome with the giddy delights of Christmas morning to allow his thoughts to linger for too long on a dream-like memory of having been carried up to bed just a few hours earlier by his father. 

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Christmas! (Seventh day to be precise) 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this latest Christmas adventure of the Black family, and I hope you all have a happy New Year's Eve and a positive start to 2021 :) 
> 
> Chat to me on Tumblr - https://www.tumblr.com/blog/mariekavanagh


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